FEBRUARY. 87 



tulip, a dahlia, or an auricula. We look to the density of its 

 foliage, its ample proportions and the spread of its branches ; 

 and pronounce it beautiful, according as it seems capable, in 

 a greater or less degree, of contributing to our comfort and 

 pleasure. 



Still we delight in seeing these qualities in a tree com- 

 bined as intimately as nature will permit with visual beauty 

 — in other words, with such forms and colors as agreeably 

 affect the eye, without reference to mental associations. 

 Such are its agreeable outlines, the symmetry of its branches, 

 the color of its foliage, on a general view, and the forms of 

 its leaves, on a nearer view. Hence an equal adjustment of 

 parts, a rounded and flowing outline, elegant forms of foli- 

 age, fine tints of green, or of other hues, according to the 

 season, and many other similar qualities, are ingredients of 

 positive or visual beauty. Yet I would not venture to assert 

 that even these are not, in a great measure, dependent on 

 association, for their powers of agreeably affecting the sight. 



We are still further delighted, if we discern in the forms 

 and appearance of a tree those suggestive qualities that 

 render it poetical or picturesque. Such are all those shapes 

 that suggest ideas of grandeur, as in the elm ; of fortitude, 

 as in the gnarled oak, that has contended successfully with 

 the storms of centuries : of dignity, as in the ash ; or of 

 grace, as in the weeping willow. Some of these moral ex- 

 pressions result from a positive quality of the tree ; in other 

 cases, they arise from some associations, connected with the 

 name and history of the tree, independent of any actual 

 quality it possesses. Thus the Cedar of Lebanon, on account 

 of its noble proportions, would not fail to suggest the idea of 

 grandeur to the mind of the spectator, whether he knew the 

 tree by name or not ; but to one who knew it to be the veri- 

 table Cedar of Lebanon, so poetically described in Holy 

 Writ, it would seem the more beautiful from its association 

 with the delightful imagery of the sacred writers. The 

 same may be said of the beech, as a classical tree, with 

 reference to the frequent allusions to it in the poetry of the 

 Romans ; and of the yew, with reference to its funereal 



